


Sledgehammer

by Neuqe



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry Gets Hurt, Caitlin and Barry are brotp, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Vaguely based on a song, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 15:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6382720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neuqe/pseuds/Neuqe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry gets hurt and the heart monitor is betraying him</p><p>or the one where Caitlin is the smartest of them all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sledgehammer

“Guys, I’m fine, seriously,” Barry tried to protest from the STAR lab’s hospital bed as Caitlin and Cisco fussed over him.

“Barry, you got almost torched less than hour ago. You have quite excessive burns all over your body and I strongly suspect you also have suffered a mild concussion, three broken ribs and your clavicle is fractured. I have not even finished examining all your injuries,” Caitlin told matter-of-factly and kept checking the all the monitors next to his bed.

“Yeah, dude, Caitlin is right. You didn’t look fine few moments ago,” Cisco chimed in.

Barry let out a sigh. Cisco did have a point. The latest mission had not gone smoothly. What had earlier seemed to be a regular heist to Central City Gallery, turned out to be a heist to Central City Gallery made by a metahuman who controlled and created fire and had a hell of aim with those fire balls. Not to mention kickass self-defence skills without the powers as well. The fire metahuman had the element of surprise and the fireballs, which meant that Barry got his ass kicked. Big time.

He was not in a good shape afterwards but with his last powers he did speed back to STAR labs. He may or may have not collapsed on the floor after it. So in theory, Cisco and Caitlin did have a point with all the fuss and worry but the incident happened an hour ago. But there still was the speed healing factor.

“I heal fast,” Barry offered with a grin but that only earned him a double eye roll.

“Speedster or not, you are not leaving this bed today. Doctor’s orders,” Caitlin told not unkindly and smiled sympathetically, “I’ll get something for the pain.”

“That sucks, man,” Cisco said and clapped Barry on his arm, “I’ll fix our suit while you heal.”

                                                                                                                      *************

“So, good news is that you are healing quite like we expected,” Caitlin announced after Barry had spent three hours lying on the bed mostly staring at the ceiling.

“I sense there is but coming” Barry said with a suspicious glance and a deep sigh. Because, of course, nothing would ever be so simple.

“The burns do not seem to be healing quite as fast as rest of your injuries,” Caitlin told and handed the tablet to Barry, “the initial results show that the fire that the other metahuman used was not regular fire and that is why your burns-“

“-are not regular either,” Barry said finishing the sentence for her while studying the lab report on the tablet.

“That is correct,” Caitlin nodded, “but I’m going to run some more tests to figure this thing out. But I would like to keep you here for overnight in monitoring.”

“Alright,” Barry did not look too pleased with the situation.

Caitlin took the tablet back and sat on the edge of his bed. She bit her lower lip. “We could try different ointment, I think it could ease the pain a bit.”

Barry gave a nod and a small smile. “Yeah, why not. I’m not in too much pain, but it doesn’t hurt to try.”

“Oh, Iris called that she and Joe are coming to visit soon and bring some food, too. They would bring Wally as well but explaining the injuries and why you are at STAR labs would be bit difficult to explain-”

“The suit is beyond repairing-“ Cisco walked towards the bed, looking at the red lump of fabric that formerly had been Barry’s suit, but he abruptly stopped talking and walking. He glanced at both Caitlin and Barry, who didn’t seem to be the merriest people at the moment.

“Is everything alright? Are _you_ alright?” He asked pointedly, looking at Barry. A frown of worry had appeared between Cisco’s eyebrows and he hurriedly walked to the side of his bed.

Barry waved his hand. “Yeah, it’s nothing serious. Just that the burns take longer to heal because apparently the fire balls were not regular fire balls. Properties wise,” Barry continued as if there would have been a definition of a regular fire ball.

“That kind of makes sense,” Cisco admitted, “the suit is almost completely destroyed and fire shouldn’t do that kind of damage.”

“Sorry,” Barry muttered.

“What are you apologizing for?” Cisco looked puzzled.

“Destroying our suit, once again,” he looked sorrowfully the remains of the suit Cisco was still holding. It had been a good suit.

“Nah, you’re not the one to blame _this time_ ,” he gave a pointed look to Barry but broke into a laugh.

“Besides it did its job. The suit I mean. You are still alive and breathing,” Cisco placed his hand on Barry’s shoulder and smiled.

The monitor next to Barry’s bed started beeping faintly. Caitlin looked at the monitor, sighed, and pointed at the one that showed Barry’s heartbeat.

“Also, that. Your heartbeat seems to be rather irregular. It increases every now then, it might be nothing but I’d like to keep an eye on that,” Caitlin pointed out and wrote notes on the tablet. Barry just nodded.

Cisco clapped his hands. “So, the Flash suit 3.0 coming to your way soon. Any wishes for improvements? At least I am gonna make it fire proof this time,” he said with a grin.

Barry’s face broke into a grin as well. “Fire proof sounds good.”

                                                                                                                            *******************

 

“Barry, are you feeling well enough for some standing?” Cisco asked as he appeared into the cortex once again. He had tied his hair into a loose bun and he was carrying a measuring tape on his shoulders.

Hours had passed since the Wests had visited Barry. It was already late evening but Cisco and Caitlin refused to leave the labs when Barry was stuck there. Also, someone obviously needed to keep an eye on Barry if his condition would take turn for the worse.

Barry looked baffled. “I guess so.”

“Great, it’s measuring time,” Cisco announced and helped Barry on his feet.

“Be careful with the tubes!” Caitlin called out from her desk where she was working with various blood samples.

As soon as she had said that the heart monitor next to Barry’s bed started beeping again. Caitlin looked up from the blood samples again. She studied the situation: Barry was on his feet and Cisco was squatting and measuring circumference of the speedster’s ankle.  Standing up from the bed should not be nowhere enough physical stress to cause Barry’s heart beat to raise. She was about make a remark on the strange phenomena but then the dots connected in her mind. There was a common factor with both cases when Barry’s heart beat increased suddenly. _Cisco._ She found herself smiling at the realisation, even though this required investigating; two times could be a coincident. Although she didn’t believe in coincidences in this case.

“What was wrong with the old measurements?” Barry whined as he spread out arms and Cisco took the measurements of the length of his arms.

“Man, that’s the point. They were _old._ They were taken like two years ago,” Cisco pointed out with a laugh.

“Are you implying that I’m getting fat?” Amusement was clearly present in Barry’s tone.

“As if, I’m pretty sure it’s impossible with your metabolism. You are forever doomed to be tall and lanky. Horrible fate,” Cisco said and laughed genuinely, “no, if I’m gonna do yet another suit, we are gonna do it properly. And you’ve been training since the last measuring session, so it’s most likely gonna be muscles instead of fat prompting a bigger suit.”

Cisco had moved measuring the circumference of Barry’s waist. The monitor started beeping more frequently.

He looked up to see Barry’s face. “Seriously dude, what’s up with your heart?”

“I-I don’t know,” Barry stammered a response.

                                                                                                                           **********************

 

It was past midnight when Cisco appeared into the cortex with a fluffy pillow. They had only few lights on and everything was quiet, the only constant noise was the air conditioning machine. He tried to walk quietly but when he noticed Barry was still awake he decided it was pointless.

“Hey,” Barry murmured as Cisco took the plastic chair next to his bed.

“Hey, where’s Caitlin?”

Barry gestured vaguely towards the door. “She went to get some supplies from the storage,” Barry looked at the pillow with a confused face, “what’s up with the pillow?”

Cisco looked as if he had only realised on that moment that he was indeed holding a pillow. “Oh, this, I thought you might wanna have more comfortable pillow instead of that flat one. It’s like using a rock as a pillow. It kills your neck,” Cisco explained and stood up to change the pillows.

“Thanks,” Barry said sincerely, “still doesn’t explain where you got the pillow.”

“I’ve had it here for ages. I’ve crashed on the break room’s couch coupla times after a long night,” Cisco said with a sheepish smile and a small shrug. Barry smiled back at him.

“Cannot sleep, huh?” Cisco asked after a moment of comfortable silence.

“Yeah,” Barry admitted.

“Are you in pain?” Cisco asked worriedly.

Barry shook his head. “Not much. Caitlin gave me some sorta of painkiller cocktail,” he said with a grin, “she has been experimenting and developing those pain killers so they actually even work for a while even with my metabolism. Most of the burns are almost completely healed. There is one on my right leg and small one on my left cheek.” He turned his head so that Cisco could see a small area of reddish skin on his cheek.

“They are just itchy,” Barry continued his explanation.

“The ointment should help with that,” Caitlin pointed out helpfully walking into a cortex carrying few plastic boxes.

“I can help with that,” Cisco said quickly and took the jar of ointment from the table. He glanced at Barry little unsurely while unscrewing the lid off from the small jar. “Only if you want, of course,” he added.

“Yeah,” Barry said with a fast nod. Caitlin smiled knowing that Barry was more than capable of spreading the ointment himself to the remaining burns. He had actually insisted doing it himself the last time Caitlin had offered her help.

Cisco had already walked to the other side of the bed and had a lump of ointment on his right hand. “Alright, say if I’m hurting you or if it feels uncomfortable or anything,” Cisco said with a shrug and started gently covering the burn with ointment.

The faint beeping started again immediately and it became more and more frequent. Caitlin watched her friends in amusement from her table. Her prediction had been correct. Barry most definitely had a crush on Cisco.

Cisco was staring at Barry’s face with great focus to apply the ointment and Barry had been staring right back at his face and quite frankly the whole situation reminded Caitlin of a cheesy rom-com movie because her best friends were having a serious case of heart eyes. The only thing that kind of ruined the mood was the beeping monitor.

Cisco glanced at her direction. “Cait, are you sure that thing isn’t malfunctioning?”

“Or just way too sensitive,” Barry muttered.

Caitlin knew very well that it wasn’t her place to say anything about Barry’s feelings. But giving just a little push was a part of the job description of a best friend.

“The monitor is fine, and as far as I can tell, so is Barry’s heart.” She smiled and both of the boys shot a suspicious glance at her but she decided to collectively ignore them.

Cisco continued to treat Barry’s burns with utmost care. Caitlin was almost proud of his medical skills.

“All done,” Cisco exclaimed few moments later.

“Thanks,” Barry repeated with a tiny smile and rolled the sweat pants’ leg back down.

Caitlin stood up and stretched. “If you are all finished, I think I’m going to go and sleep few hours.”

“Oh, I can stay and take the first shift of looking after him,” Cisco said sitting back on the plastic chair.

Caitlin almost said that they all could go and sleep. Barry was physically healthy besides the small burns and his condition didn’t need continuous monitoring. She could have dismissed him from the bed rest at that moment but perhaps this was the push that they needed.

“Alright, I’m at the break room if you need me,” she said with a nod and disappeared from the cortex.

“You can sleep as well. I’ll be fine,” Barry told with a warm smile.

“Nah, I can keep you company because you don’t look like you are falling asleep any moment soon.”

Barry did look tired, but he seemed to be very awake and alert. Cisco knew that Barry had a tendency to pull all nighters when something was bothering him. Besides trying to fall asleep with burned skin most likely was not the easiest mission.

“If you wanna sleep, I can go away,” Cisco added because the speedster was staring at him with odd expression on his face.

“No, no, stay if you want to,” Barry quickly said.

Cisco had a strong feeling that their conversation was going around circles. “That’s decided then,” he said with a grin, but got quickly more serious. “Do you wanna talk about whatever is bothering you?” he asked more gently.

Barry chewed his lower lip and scratched his neck. “I- It’s just that the fight with fire lady keeps playing on a loop in my head. I’m trying to figure out what I could have done differently to stop her.”

“We’ll figure out that tomorrow, like we always do. You did your best and that’s more than enough,” Cisco told seriously and patted Barry’s arm, “but fire lady? Leave the naming stuff for me.”

Barry let out a laugh.

Cisco flashed a quick smile. “So do you wanna have a movie night then? I have _Pacific Rim_ on my laptop.”

“Sounds good.”

                                                                                                            ***********************************

 

“You are officially discharged from bed rest, Mr Allen,” Caitlin said with a huge smile on her face in the morning. She stood in front of Barry’s bed and was finishing the medical report on her tablet.

“Well, thank you, Dr Snow,” Barry answered amusedly and let out a laugh.

“All of your burns are healed and you are back in full health,” she explained, “and I figured out what was up with your heart.”

For a moment Barry looked puzzled. “Really?”

“Mmmh, you have a crush on Cisco,” she continued without looking up from the tablet but her smile turned into a grin.

“What? I- It’s not- I do not-“ Barry stammered before sighing deeply. “Is it really that obvious?”

“The heart monitor told all of your secrets. Your pulse was like a sledgehammer every time he was around” Caitlin said with a genuine laugh, “and after that everything started to make sense.”

Barry just scratched his neck and looked at the floor.

“I think it is great,” Caitlin told gently, “and I think you should ask him out.”

Barry glanced up again. “What?”

Caitlin chuckled lightly. “I seriously think he is returning your feelings and the easiest way of finding out whether it is the case, is to ask him out. That’s more convenient than connecting him to the heart monitor.”

Barry snorted.

“And what’s the worst thing that will happen? You are so close, asking him out won’t ruin all of that. Besides, it is Cisco. You are best friends. Stop over thinking it,” Caitlin told sweetly and placed her hand on his shoulders.

“Your arguments are pretty solid,” Barry said with a laugh and took a deep breath, “I’m gonna do it.”

Caitlin beamed. “Great. I’m happy for you.”

Barry was already walking away from the cortex but turned around when Caitlin called after him.

“And Barry? If this works out, I want to be your maid of honour!”

“Shut up!”

                                                                                                          ***************************************

Barry found Cisco from one of the working rooms near cortex. Fortunately neither Jesse nor Harry were there. He needed to ask Cisco right away or otherwise all the courage he had gathered up from Caitlin’s pep talk was going to vanish and he was going to get cold feet about this again. He had already lost count how many times he had walked up to Cisco and decided on the last second to say something else and not to ask him out.

“Hey.” Barry was leaning into the door frame and looked at Cisco who was working on some sort of machine.

He looked up and his face broke into a grin. “Hey! I see Caitlin finally let you go.”

Barry walked towards Cisco’s desk. “Yeah, I’m the poster boy for health once again.”

Cisco laughed. “That’s good. By the way, I finished the new suit. I put it into the show case already but I could walk you through the changes I did-“

“That sounds great,” Barry said and felt tiny bit guilty for interrupting Cisco but this was _important_ , “but can I first talk about something?”

Cisco looked confused but nodded anyway.

“Well, it is more like asking than talking, but asking is talking, right, so,” Barry realised that he was just rambling and took deep breath, “wouldyouliketogooutwithme?”

“What?”

“Would you like to go out with me? Grab coffee or something? Dinner maybe?” Barry said with a shrug. He had pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and tried to keep his gaze on Cisco. Caitlin was not joking about the sledgehammer comment. Barry was quite sure that his heart might actually leap out of his chest.

“Yeah, why not. Today or?”

“I mean as a date,” Barry blurted out because it seemed that his point was not getting across as efficiently as he had hoped.

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Barry offered a nervous smile and scratched back of his head. The silence seemed to last forever. Cisco was staring at him with a blank face and Barry’s mind was racing faster than he had ever run.

His mind did abruptly stopped racing when he felt Cisco’s lips on his own. It took a brief moment before Barry realised that he was supposed to kiss him back. It was bit sloppy, but still gentle and a sweet kiss.

“Was that okay?” Cisco asked when they parted. “I’m sorry that I just kissed you like out of the blue, I probably should have asked first-“

“More than okay, no need to apologize for _that_ ” Barry breathed out.

Cisco laughed. Barry was rather sure that his heart was going to explode from pure happiness.

“So that’s a yes, right?” He asked with a nervous laugh.

“I’m not that cold person that I’d first kiss you and then turn you down, so yes, it’s a yes.” Cisco told with a wide grin. “So, the suit-“

Barry tried his best to focus when Cisco started to tell all the improvements and changes he had done to their suit, but it was rather difficult because he was so _happy_ and he had a permanent grin stuck on his face and his heart still needed to slow down.

 

**Author's Note:**

> "If you could take my pulse right now it would feel just like a sledgehammer"   
> Yes this is based on the song Sledgehammer by Fifth Harmony very vaguely.
> 
> All the mistakes are mine, especially all the grammar ones. Also I do not know if they have a break room at STAR labs? Let's just pretend there is one. Also the whole thing is just probably filled with scientific inaccuracies so I apologize for those as well. I spent ridiculous amount of time deciding whether I should post this but here it is now. Also I have no idea how this got so long.  
> My tumblr is http://arrows-felicity.tumblr.com/


End file.
